Veronica Smarz’s overtime heroics propels Cougars into national final

Two classic hockey truisms come to mind today: you have to beat the teams beneath you in the standings, and you always want the final game of the season to matter. Thanks to an overtime winner from Cougars rookie Veronica Smarz, both rang true, and with her clutch goal in overtime against the Boston College Eagles, the Cougars will play for an ACHA Nationals Championship Thursday in St. Louis.

The Cougars opened the scoring at 16:38 of the first period when Cougars sniper Kasey Fouillard scored a nice goal on a feed from linemates Veronica Smarz and Victoria Mann. That line has been productive all season and is a genuine threat to other teams every time they step on the ice, with nationals being no different. The Cougars had a couple of opportunities to go up 2-0 near the end of the frame including a partial breakaway by Fouillard, but it was Boston College who capitalized on a tough chip at the line to even the score at one heading into the first intermission.

Boston College came out of the dressing room in the second and quickly jumped out to a 2-1 lead before Cougars forward Victoria Mann used her speed to power to the front of the net and capitalize on a nice feed from her linemates Smarz and Foulliard to even the score at two.

The second period saw the Eagles push the pace at times, giving the Cougars all sorts of challenges with the Eagles forwards, with Cougars goaltender Clair Merckx making some nice positional saves to keep her team in it through the middle frame.

The third period solved little, with both teams tightening up somewhat in playing a game of keep away and some tentative hockey that gave everyone in attendance the feeling that an extra frame would be needed to settle the issue.

Heading into overtime, the Cougars were in unfamiliar territory, having played in very few close games this season, outscoring their opponents during the regular season by a significant margin, and handling opponents by a 23-2 margin in their first three games at nationals.

In overtime the teams traded chances once again, before a pass from forward Madison Haliuk along the near board landed on Cougars forward Veronica Smarz 'stick just outside the offensive zone. She had to do some nifty stickhandling to bat the puck down before pulling it in near the slot where she used the Boston College defender as a screen to hammer it past Boston College goaltender Samantha Burke far side for the win.

“Our team stuck with it. These games take years off of people's lives, and obviously these games can be stressful at times when it feels like every puck you touch is bouncing the opposite way,” said Cougars head coach Charles Tweed. “It’s difficult because everybody knows that it is going to be one bounce one way or the other that is going to decide it. Luckily it came off of our stick and we got through.”

For Cougars goaltender Clair Merckx, she came into the game having traded the crease back and forth with her counterpart Rachel Halladorson at nationals, and when needed she was clutch for the Cougars, especially in the third period where the Cougars got into some penalty trouble taking uncharacteristic back-to-back minor penalties.

“I was pretty stressed at first, but the team came together and had each other's back, so I was pretty happy with that,” said Merckx. “I kind of just sat back there and took some deep breaths and thought about what I needed to do. You definitely have butterflies, but you need to put that aside and just focus on your game,”

For her part, Smarz took the goal, and the win all in stride, focusing clearly on the task that lies ahead for the Cougars. “This moment was unreal, to be honest I was juggling it a bit, it kept bouncing in every kind of direction and my main focus was just to get it to the net.” Smarz noted that she and her team are confident heading into tomorrow’s final. “I came here for a reason; we know what we need to do and are ready to go out there and do what we have been doing all season.”

Tomorrow's final against the Sault College Cougars takes place at the Centenne Community Ice Centre, puck drop is at 5:00 p.m. All the ACHA Women’s Division 2 action can be streamed on tournament broadcast partner flohockey.tv.